We know the news flash: On Saturday morning, Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher shot and killed his girlfriend, then drove to Arrowhead Stadium and shot himself in the head in the parking lot in front of his coaches. To liberals like NBC sportscaster Bob Costas, this was not just a crisis. It was also an opportunity.

During the halftime of the Dec. 2 Sunday night game between Dallas and Philadelphia, Costas unfurled a wholly unexpected and condescending lecture about how gun owners who harm America with their “gun culture” never learn.

He began by saying he didn’t want to hear “mindless” cliches about how this crime puts sports in perspective. Then Costas turned to Kansas City-based sports columnist Jason Whitlock, quoting how he found that our “gun culture” inevitably leads to senseless and violent confrontations. It is apparently alien to these pundits that a gun can save a life or defend a home. They only serve evil ends.

“Handguns do not enhance our safety,” Costas quoted from Whitlock. “They exacerbate our flaws, tempt us to escalate arguments and bait us into embracing confrontation rather than avoiding it. In the coming days, Jovan Belcher’s actions, and their possible connection to football, will be analyzed … If Jovan Belcher didn’t possess a gun, he and (girlfriend) Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today.”

Right off the bat, a couple of observations:

1. Does the name O.J. Simpson ring a bell?

2. Had Nicole Simpson been carrying a gun, might she be alive today? Ditto Kasandra Perkins.

Two more observations:

3. Why do so many in the entertainment world believe they are qualified as polemicists?

4. Why can’t we just watch football?

Really, who asked Bob Costas to offer his very one-sided “perspective”? When liberals get arrogant like this, they assume they speak for all humanity. It is not surprising that there was an uproar in response. People are fed up with liberal pontificating.

Costas on Tuesday replied it was a “mistake” to mention gun control on air Sunday because his choice of words “left it open for too much miscommunication.” That alone was bad enough, because there was no miscommunication. What followed was a doubling down on arrogance.

He quickly snapped back at critics. “Sometimes the quality of those who oppose you speaks for itself,” Costas said. “I was told — I didn’t see it — that someone compared (the halftime segment) to blatantly racist comments.”

Whoa. Rewind. Is this man a journalist? Who compared this lecture to racism?

Costas tried to insist he wasn’t calling for a gun ban. “Here’s where I stand: I do not want to see the Second Amendment repealed … People should be allowed to own guns for their own protection. Obviously, those who are hunters.”

But “access to guns is too easy in some cases. I don’t see any reason a citizen should be able to arm himself in some states in ways only police or military should — to have a virtual militia (bought by) mail order or gun shows.”

This has zero relevance to the Belcher case. He was using a legally owned handgun.

Unsurprisingly, some of MSNBC’s liberal stars, past and present, found this political posturing very satisfying. Lawrence O’Donnell announced that he loved the Costas tirade and the Whitlock article, declaring it was the first football article he’d read in 2012. Former MSNBC (and every other network) star Keith Olbermann tweeted that conservative outrage was phony: “Amazing that all those ripping my friend Bob Costas about (the) Second Amendment would, had he taken opposing view, be defending him using the First.”

That concept collapses upon itself. If Costas were prone to pompous right-wing halftime commentaries, he wouldn’t last five minutes at NBC Sports or NBC Anything Else. Just a few years ago, NBC was airing Olbermann himself as a pre-game and halftime analyst. There is never room for conservative opinion on these shows.

Intoxicated by the attention, Whitlock tried to out-crazy Costas. In an interview on Monday, he insisted, “The NRA is the new KKK,” claiming the NRA’s work is gun-running and drug-running for black children. The “arming of so many black youths, uh, and loading up our community with drugs, and then just having an open shooting gallery, is the work of people who obviously don’t have our best interests” at heart, he spewed.

Some liberals are just insufferable bores. Can’t they please let us watch football, and not their self-implosion?